Reince Priebus, Chairman of the Republican National Committee, speaks, as Sharon Day (right), Co-Chair of the Republican National Committee, looks on during the RNC Summer General Session meeting at the Westin Michigan Avenue Chicago.

Reince Priebus, Chairman of the Republican National Committee, speaks, as Sharon Day (right), Co-Chair of the Republican National Committee, looks on during the RNC Summer General Session meeting at the Westin Michigan Avenue Chicago. (Heather Charles / Chicago Tribune)

Reince Priebus, Chairman of the Republican National Committee, speaks, as Sharon Day, Co-Chair of the Republican National Committee, looks on during the RNC Summer General Session meeting at the Westin Michigan Avenue Chicago.

Reince Priebus, Chairman of the Republican National Committee, speaks, as Sharon Day, Co-Chair of the Republican National Committee, looks on during the RNC Summer General Session meeting at the Westin Michigan Avenue Chicago. (Heather Charles)

Top national Republicans held their summer meeting in Chicago today in a symbolic defiance to hometown President Barack Obama, Illinois’ blue-state status and Democrats who control the Senate, and vowed an expensive and expansive mid-term campaign to gain full control of Congress.

GOP civil war costs $135M as Senate odds improving

Mixing endorsements, advertising, and a drive to surpass tea party turnout, the business community has helped put Republicans in their strongest position yet to retake the Senate.

Mixing endorsements, advertising, and a drive to surpass tea party turnout, the business community has helped put Republicans in their strongest position yet to retake the Senate.

Meeting at a Gold Coast hotel, members of the Republican National Committee also ratified the selection of Cleveland to host their 2016 presidential nominating convention. Also on display were philosophical and ideological splits within the GOP when a resolution sought by conservative free-marketers to stop the reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank was narrowly voted down.

RNC Chairman Reince Priebus of Wisconsin touted what he called “a permanent ground game” by Republicans rather than an operation solely focused on election times. “We didn’t just create a few new programs. We established a new way of thinking — a national party, permanently in communities, year-round.”

Priebus pointedly noted the Chicago location for the summer meeting. “What better way to show we’re serious about being present everywhere than to come to the president’s hometown,” he told committee members.

He also hailed “future governors who will bring new leadership to states where Democrats have failed, like right here in Illinois. I’m looking forward to a big Republican victory here, when voters send Gov. (Pat) Quinn packing and elect Bruce Rauner the next governor.”

Priebus repeatedly called on committee members to lead the effort to “fire Harry Reid,” the Senate’s Democratic majority leader, by electing a Republican majority in the chamber in the mid-term elections.

But Priebus didn’t mention the Illinois Senate contest, where Reid’s top deputy, Sen. Dick Durbin, is being challenged by Republican businessman and state Sen. Jim Oberweis. Instead, Priebus went next door to cite the contentious Iowa Senate contest between Republican state Sen. Joni Ernst and Democratic U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley to fill the vacancy left by retiring veteran Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin.

Priebus also attacked Democrats for their stances on health care, energy policy and lack of educational choice and accused the opposition of trying to “rewrite the First Amendment and it’s up to us to stop them.”

“The Democrats have it wrong. The First Amendment is sacred. Obamacare is not,” Priebus said of the president’s signature Affordable Care Act. “If we work together, conservatives, Republicans, independents, local tea party activists, we can fire Reid and get this country working. That doesn’t mean that we don’t have disagreements, But when we do, let’s work it out.”

One issue of disagreement within the GOP that didn’t come up during the general session was immigration. Some conservative members of Congress returning home for a month-long recess have adopted more strident tones toward making changes in the nation’s immigration laws in light of a border crisis involving thousands of undocumented children from Central America.

But one controversy did surface: the Export-Import Bank, which guarantees loans made by firms that import U.S.-made goods, and a brewing fight between conservative free marketers opposed to the institution and the GOP’s business establishment, which supports it. An effort by conservatives to adopt a resolution of the Republican Party opposed to a reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank before a Sept. 30 deadline failed with 63 RNC members voting for it and 67 against.

Morton Blackwell, committeeman from Virginia, called the bank “a glaring example of crony capitalism” and said the vote on the resolution represented “a moment of truth for this national committee.” But Jeff Kent, committeeman for Washington state, said adopting the resolution would “inflame some tensions between our core supporters” and divide states and some members of Congress from the national GOP.

Chicago-based Boeing Co., which has major operations in Washington, is among companies that have benefitted from the Export-Import Bank’s loan guarantees in jet sales to foreign airlines.

Later, U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan from Janesville, Wis., the unsuccessful 2012 vice presidential nominee, told the committee that Republicans need a “1980s-type election” of the kind that put Ronald Reagan into the White House.

Ryan said the GOP has that opportunity because its loss to Obama came two years ago came during a debate against “big government in theory,” and now “we have big government in practice.”

“It doesn’t look anything like what was used to sell it. The results are so far untethered from the rhetoric that was used to sell it that there is, in my opinion, a realization in this country that, ‘Oh, all this big government isn’t cracked up to what they said it would be,” Ryan said.

Ryan also took a couple of shots at Obama’s home state.

“For those of you from Illinois, thank you so much for making our state look good,” he said. He also said he prefers to fly out of Milwaukee, saying Mitchell Field is “an airport that’s much more hospitable than the one north of here” — an apparent reference to O’Hare International Airport.

During an RNC dinner at the Shedd Aquarium, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker lambasted Illinois’ Democrat-led government during his keynote address, while endorsing Republican Bruce Rauner’s bid for governor.

“They’ve got all these challenges, and for all the hype and hysteria about raising taxes, they still have budget problems,” Walker said of the state’s Democratic leadership, criticizing Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn and Democrats who control the General Assembly.

“That’s what you get when you have Democratic leaderships left unchecked in a state like Illinois,” Walker said.

Walker's criticism of Illinois wasn't solely directed at the state's political landscape. The Republican governor jokingly described Chicago as a southern Milwaukee suburb, and couldn't help but note the concurrent preseason NFL game happening just south of the Shedd Aquarium.

"The last time I was this close to Soldier Field on gameday, the Packers beat the Bears in the NFC Championship," Walker said.

Reince Priebus, Chairman of the Republican National Committee, speaks, as Sharon Day, Co-Chair of the Republican National Committee, looks on during the RNC Summer General Session meeting at the Westin Michigan Avenue Chicago.

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